Manly has recorded a fourth straight win tonight, overcoming North Queensland 38-6 tonight in a scrappy affair at Gosford's Bluetongue Stadium.
The Sea Eagles were expected to have no trouble overrunning the depleted Cowboys, but struggled to gain any fluency in attack, as the North Queenslanders showed commitment in defence for much of the game, before leaking three tries in the final ten minutes .
It took Manly 35 minutes to open the scoring against the determined Cowboys, but silly penalties continually put the visitors under the pump, and the fatigue-factor finally caught up with them.
A clever one armed offload from Brent Kite to Heath L'Estrange, who in turn found a rampaging Adam Cuthbertson gave Manly the opening try in the 35th minute, with Orford adding the extras to make it 6-nil and finally give the Sea Eagles something to show for their prolonged possession.
The four-pointer seemed to energise the Sea Eagles, and another needless penalty in the play-the-ball led to Cuthbertson grabbing his second try, Manly's second in the space of three minutes.
The visitors were forced to make a whopping 60 more tackles than the Sea Eagles in the first half, Manly going to the break with a 12-nil advantage on the back of enjoying 12 of the final 14 sets.
The Cowboys started the second half with more discipline, but the Sea Eagles were fresh in defence, and more than able to handle the limited attacking plays put forward by the Cowboys.
Manly extended their lead impressively in the 49th minute, a clever grubber from Orford was gathered in by Lyon who released Williams on the inside to grab his first try in the top grade, making it 16-nil to the Sea Eagles.
A sloppy pass from Orford presented Ben Farrar with a unimpeded run to the line in the 55th minute, with John Williams nailing the conversion to cut the deficit to 10 and give the Cowboys a sniff.
But Josh Perry snuffed out any hope of a North Queensland revival with a barnstorming try in the 63rd minute, Orford's conversion restoring the Sea Eagles advantage to 16.
Manly ran all over the top of the fatigued Cowboys in the latter stages, adding two tries to Michael Robertson and one to Nick Bradley-Qalilawa, blowing the final scoreline out to a flattering 38-6 for the patchy Sea Eagles.
